KL Rahul to Shreyas Iyer: Top five released players who can lead new franchises in IPL 2022 – In Pics

David Warner: Australian opener & ‘Man of the Tournament’ in the recently concluded T20 World Cup 2021, David Warner is the first-choice captain for both Lucknow & Ahmedabad. Things didn’t go well between Warner & his franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad in the 2021 edition and the Australian opener is all set to start a new journey with a new franchise. Warner was sacked mid-season by Hyderabad, who retained three players - Kane Williamson, Abdul Samad, and Umran Malik.

Warner, who is among the top 5 runs scorers in the history of the league, took SRH’s charge in 2015 and led them to the IPL title win in 2016. He remained a consistent run-scorer, scoring 600+ runs in six seasons, and also led SRH to the playoffs in 2017 as well.

Steve Smith: With RPSG Group back in the IPL, Steve Smith too can return to a captaincy in the league. The former Australian skipper led RPSG’s Rising Pune Supergiants’ (RPS) in the two editions during 2016 and 2017. Smith even led RPS into the finals in IPL 2017 and the Lucknow franchise might reappoint him as the captain. Steve Smith is currently in the Delhi Capitals squad and is unlikely to be retained.

KL Rahul: KL Rahul was not retained by the Punjab Kings and the prolific batter will be on the target list of many franchises in the IPL 2022 mega auction.

Rahul has been in terrific touch for the last 4 seasons of the IPL. He was a big revelation when he joined Punjab Kings in 2018, winning the Orange Cap in his debut season as the Punjab captain. Averaging 50+ in each of the last 4 editions, Rahul has been excellent with the bat but failed to take his side into the playoffs.

Shreyas Iyer: Delhi Capital’s former skipper Shreyas Iyer led his side to its first IPL final in the 2020 edition in UAE. Under Iyer’s captaincy, Delhi Capitals made it to the playoffs twice, however, he suffered a shoulder injury at the start of the IPL 2021 and missed the 1st leg of the tournament, eventually losing his captaincy to Rishabh Pant.

DC on Tuesday retained Rishabh Pant, Axar Patel, Anrich Nortje & Prithvi Shaw as Indian players which forced them to release Iyer for the mega auction.

Shikhar Dhawan: DC on Tuesday retained three players but their highest run-scorer for the last three seasons, Shikhar Dhawan didn’t find a place in the team’s retention list. Dhawan was sensational with the bat last year and has overall played a significant role in the franchise’s success.

The opener finished the last season as the fourth-highest run-scorer with 587 runs in 16 matches at an average of close to 40. There is a good chance that Shikhar Dhawan could lead a new franchise in IPL 2022.